Remember a few weeks back when it was alleged that Eidos had put certain conditions in place with a number of UK magazines, offering an early, exclusive review of Batman: Arkham Asylum if they were met? Rumor had it that Eidos would let reviews go up early if the game scored over 90% and got the front cover of the mag. Well guess what — UK magazine Games Master just so happens to have an “exclusive” review, and it meets Eidos’ terms to the letter.
To say the review is positive would be to severely understate the meaning of the word. The review claims that Arkham is “Not only the best Batman game ever, but one of the finest adventures of its generation.” When listing the positive and negative points of the game, Games Master only has one negative: “It has no end.”
With a score of 96, a cover story, and nary a bad word to say, it would appear that GM has toed the line perfectly. Whether this is the result of sordid backstage shenanigans, we’ll never know for sure, but it’s certainly one heck of a coincidence that this “world exclusive review” does everything Eidos supposedly wanted, isn’t it?
Eidos has an alleged history of attempting to rig scores and meddle with reviews, so it’s not surprising on their end. However, if GM took the bait, or indeed any other media outlet, I’d like them to let me know, just so I make sure I never, ever apply for a job there.
